Monthly Archives: January 2015

The New York City police officer down on Ludlow Street was tapping my window with the insistence of the law.

“Oh boy,” I thought. “Here we go again.” I had been idling for way too long, talking on the phone in what definitely could not be considered a parking spot—could not even really be considered a loading spot, if I were honest.

I reluctantly rolled down the window.

“Yes, officer?” I asked.

“This is THE BEST looking car I have EVER seen,” he told me, smiling. “The best. Wow.”

I should have known. There had been the couple in a Tesla who smugly pointed out to me that their car is “completely electric” but mine “looked better.” There was the thirtysomething who stared at it longingly as he took 15 minutes to load his wife and toddler into an Audi station wagon at a nearby parking garage. And the dozen or so gawkers who hung their heads like dogs out the windows of taxis and trucks and town cars as they snapped cellphone photos.

Following the most wonderful time of the year is a season that strikes fear in the hearts of many small business owners: tax time.

Shelling out a substantial percentage of the year’s income is stressful enough, but tax season also brings with it a great deal of complexity and confusion. Tax laws are constantly changing and being revised, and it can be difficult for small business owners to keep up. And what adds even more stress to tax filing is that even innocent mistakes or oversights can lead to big penalties.

I am a huge advocate for preparing and eating meals at home. It’s almost always drastically cheaper than eating out. You have fine control over the quality and quantity of the ingredients. You can make whatever you want and you’re not restricted by a menu. You don’t have to wait to get seated. Eating at home just has a ton of benefits.

Still, there are times when eating out at a restaurant just makes more sense. For example, if we choose to spend a day in the Des Moines area, we often wind up more than an hour from home in the evening and, with hungry children, it just makes more sense to eat out. We also usually plan a meal at a restaurant roughly once a month in addition to those relatively unexpected events.

Concrete is a pretty amazing material. Form Matters explores the dual nature of concrete — of how it can be used to create architectural masterpieces meant to last hundreds of years to wearable, everyday accessories. It examines the overlapping nature of architecture, art, and fashion.

There’s a lot of content out there telling you to go forth! Start a business! but the truth is, not everyone should start a business. If more of the 80 percent of small businesses that fail had but hesitated and considered why they were getting into business, we’d probably have fewer businesses and more successes in those that did exist. If any of these reasons ring true, you do not need to become an entrepreneur:

Want to keep your skin wrinkle free and reduce your risk of skin cancer? A smartphone app can help, according to a pair of new studies. The trick is getting people to actually use the tool.

In two new clinical trials, researchers found that the app, called Solar Cell, encourages people to spend more time in the shade and less time in the midday sun, while also nudging them toward wearing protective, wide-brim hats. But getting people to download and use the app was tough, as it is with many health-related apps, said study leader David Buller, a research director at Klein Buendel, a health communication research organization based in Golden, Colorado.

Interruptions intrude everywhere into your daily flow: marriage conversations (and other intimate activities if you have children at home), phone conversations, and your work flow.

Research indicates that it takes you anywhere from 10-20 minutes to re-engage fully with the task you abandoned when interrupted. So if you encounter 3 interruptions daily at work, that’s about one hour lost.

So when was the last time you had just 3 interruptions?

More like 33, right?

How well do you deal with these interruptions?

Implement into your work flow these three strategies for positively dealing with interruptions and watch as your sales increase with greater productivity and you get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love:

Five workers at Disneyland have been diagnosed with measles in an outbreak that California officials trace to visitors at the Anaheim (Calif.) theme park in mid-December. Disney is urging its 27,000 workers at the park to verify that they’re inoculated against the virus, and the company is offering tests and shots on site for workers who are unvaccinated. “We’re doing everything that we possibly can to proactively communicate to our cast members,” said Disney spokesperson Lisa Haines.

Disney won’t, however, require workers to get routine vaccinations as a condition of employment. Almost no companies outside the health-care industry do. “Our policies are consistent with other employers’ policies on this issue,” said Haines, noting that airports, hotels, and other businesses whose staffs encounter lots of potentially contagious travelers don’t mandate immunization. She declined to say how many Disney workers have been inoculated since the outbreak. Three of the workers who caught measles have recovered and returned to work.

Today, when you start a business, you are also starting an online presence for your business. With that presence usually comes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and often, a company blog. Though a blog arguably requires the most work out of the social networks your business partakes in, it also can reap the most rewards.

A blog truly is the voice of your business; it gives your otherwise faceless business a tone and personality unique only to itself. A blog is great for showcasing products, answering customer questions, and informing the masses on matters close to your particular industry, thereby labeling your CEO as an industry expert.

So how do you get started on the right foot and maintain a level of consistent success?